CHICAGO – Less than 24 hours after their wild 107-105 double-overtime win over the Pistons in Brooklyn, the Nets will take on the Bulls tonight at United Center.

Here are my three things to watch for in tonight’s game:

1. Can the Nets recover? – Look, this is the definition of a “schedule loss” in the NBA. The Nets played a wild double-overtime game at home Friday night, with Deron Williams logging over 43 minutes, Joe Johnson playing just under 52 and Gerald Wallace goes over 50 minutes.

Combine that with the fact that the Nets had to immediately hop on a plane and fly to Chicago for today’s game, the fact that Brook Lopez is likely to either not play or be limited again and the Bulls haven’t played since Wednesday, and a win in Chicago looks extremely unlikely.

The opening minutes of the game could prove to be critical. If the Nets can stay with the Bulls early on, and avoid getting into a big hole, it could allow for their adrenaline to take over in the second half of the game.

2. Who wins the second and third quarters? – This will be a very sneaky and interesting subplot to watch in tonight’s game. The Nets, who have been one of the best second quarter teams in the NBA this season, while the Bulls have given up more points than they’ve scored in the second.

The script is flipped in the third quarter, when the Bulls are the third-best team in the NBA, outscoring their opponents by almost 10 points per 100 possessions, while the Nets are the second-worst team in the third, being outscored by over 11 points per 100 possessions.

If the Nets can limit the damage in the third quarter, in particular – the quarter that Gerald Wallace rightly called “their nemesis” after Friday night’s game – it will go a long way towards them attempting to get a win.

3. A big game for the backcourt – As I listed at the top, there are numerous reasons why the Nets should lose today. But there is one place, whether Lopez plays or not, where they hold a massive advantage: in the backcourt.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, both in size and skill, should give the Nets a massive advantage over the combination of Kirk Hinrich (if he plays), Nate Robinson, Marco Bellinelli and Jimmy Butler (though I’m a big fan of Butler’s game).

I know they played massive minutes Friday night, but the Nets will almost definitely need big games from Williams and Johnson is they want to leave Chicago with a win.